The NAN Ranch Ruin site is a Late Pit-house and Classic Mimbres village located along the Mimbres River, at Dwyer, New Mexico and the NAN Ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It was occupied by Mimbreños from about 600 to 1140 and is considered an early Mogollon culture site.
Harriet and C.B. Cosgrove conducted the earliest excavations with their son in 1926 and 1927. Extensive excavations occurred from the 1970s through the 1990s of the several phases of occupation and their hunter-gatherer and farming economy. Clues about the Mimbreños culture and social order are gleaned from their artwork and burial remains.
Geography and climate
The Mimbres village at the NAN Ranch lies near the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau about north-east of the Mimbres River, situated on a terrace about above the river. The semi-arid grassland and plateau landscape is located south of Pinyon-juniper woodland. Vegetation in the area includes agave, common curlymesquite, dropseed, grama, prickly pear, sagebrush, sotol, and yucca. There are also examples of riparian vegetation nearby and villagers probably found douglas fir and ponderosa pine within of the site. It was likely an ideal area for agriculture due to the long growing season and plentiful water supply.
Mimbres culture
Architecture
Mimbres periods
The Mimbres cultural periods are defined by Harry J. Shafer as Early Pithouse, Late Pithouse and Classic period. The Early Pithouse, or Cumbre Phase, is dated from 200 to 400 – 550. The Late Pithouse period included the Georgetown phase (550-650), San Francisco phase (650-750) when maize became an important staple of the diet, and the Three Circle phase (750-1010) when there was a transition from pit-houses to pueblo villages and slightly greater reliance on cultivation of maize. Lastly, the Classic period when cobble masonry architecture was built over Late Pithouse period sites. The Classic period included the Classic phase (1010-1110) and Terminal Classic phase (1110-1140)
NAN Ranch village
The main village has two layers of structures, which are believed not to have been inhabited at the same time. The lower, or earlier, level is dated about 850-1000 [Three Circle phase] and consists of 16 pit-houses.
The surface level village is dated from about 1108 [Classic period] and consists of three room blocks: the south block has 10 rooms, the east has 49 rooms and the west room block has 50 rooms or more. The East Room Block contained a sturdily built, large rectangular room () believed to have been used for community ceremonial purposes, much like the later Ancient Pueblo People round kivas. Groupings of interconnected living, work and storage rooms were generally accessed by ladder through the roof of the living room, which also contained a slab-lined hearth and in many cases metates. Some of the rooms, believed to signify ceremonial rooms, had dual-hearths built in benches, sunken floors lined with flagstone, and double masonry walls.
Based upon the burial remains of the South Room Block, it was inhabited by people of prestige and status. More than 40 people's remains were found below the floor of the central room. The South Room Block also had a community room () that was built sturdily with double and triple walls. In the plazas outside the room blocks were ramadas, outdoor work areas, adobe-lined fire pits, middens, and a cremation area. There were also several pit-houses.
Based upon tree-ring dating, construction continued through 1128. Construction materials and techniques in the 12th century were less reliable and methodical, with poorer quality adobe and rock, that resulted in irregular shaped rooms. Between 1130 and 1150, people left the Mimbres valley and did not return to their previous settlements, marking the end of the Mimbres Classic period.
Due to the similarity of dental remains of the people of NAN Ranch and the later people of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Desert, the NAN Ranch inhabitants who vacated the Mimbres Valley may have moved south to the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts and helped to populate the Casas Grandes center.
Four housing types
Four types of housing were found in the NAN Ranch Three Circle phase community. The first was the single-family household which had living rooms for a family. The next housed extended family members with shared work, storage and ceremonial rooms. Larger room blocks, the third tier, consisted of several extended families. The last is the village. The housing groupings became more complex to efficiently support agriculture and maintain extended family relationships and rights.